Maxim Levy

Maxim Levy was born in Lod, a city with which he remained closely identified throughout his life.[1] He was the younger brother of prominent Israeli politician David Levy, with whom he would later serve simultaneously in the Knesset.[3][4]

Levy began his public career in the labor movement, becoming the first Herut candidate elected chairman of the works council at Israel Aviation Industries — described at the time as Israel's largest place of employment.[3] The election marked his rise within labor politics before he entered municipal government.[3]

Levy served as mayor of Lod from 1983 to 1996, a tenure of thirteen years that made him the dominant political figure in the city.[2] Municipal officials credited Levy with mobilizing government resources for Lod and said his personal relationship with Ariel Sharon helped secure four working visits by Sharon and a government decision concerning the city.[2] He was also associated with a proposed recovery plan for Lod's eastern districts, involving new neighborhoods and the planned incorporation of nearby areas.[2]

His mayoralty was not without internal tensions. During the late 1980s he clashed with his deputy mayor, Benny Regev, whose political standing in the city was linked to the success of Hapoel Lod's football team.[5] The two eventually reconciled, and in 1996 Levy left municipal leadership for national politics, with Regev succeeding him as mayor.[2]

Levy was described in memorial remarks as devoted equally to Lod's Jewish and Arab residents, to longtime residents and newcomers alike, and to disadvantaged people throughout the city.[1] One account called him the city's "legendary mayor" who managed it with "unprecedented success."[5]

In 1996 Levy entered national politics, appearing in position 14 on the joint Likud–Gesher–Tsomet electoral ticket and identified with the Gesher faction.[6] He went on to serve in both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Knessets, holding positions that included Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and chairman of the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee.[1] He also served as chairman of the Gesher faction.[1]

Levy used his committee chairmanship to take a public position on major welfare legislation. In December 1997, as chairman of the Labor and Welfare Committee, he announced that Gesher would not support the government's original proposed amendment to the Health Insurance Law, warning that if the bill passed unchanged, "there will be no government."[7] His earlier public service had also encompassed chairmanship of Israel's Center of Local Government, bridging his municipal and national roles.[1]

After a period in national politics, Levy returned to Lod and won the May 2002 mayoral election.[2] The memorial remarks described his return as an attempt to restore residents' hope in a city facing grave challenges.[1]

Four months after resuming office, Levy died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 52.[2][1] The Knesset session convened the morning after his funeral, with Speaker Avraham Burg characterizing his death as premature and shocking.[1] Following his death, Benny Regev was chosen as mayor through an internal vote among city-council members rather than a general election.[2] Levy was survived by his wife, Carmela, his children Moshe, Sima, and Yafit, and his brother, Knesset member David Levy.[1] He was also the uncle of Jacky Levy.[4]

At the Knesset memorial session, colleague Mordechai Mashani described Levy as "a public servant in every part of his being," and testified that residents of Lod remained beside and held onto his coffin for many hours during the funeral despite the heat — a spontaneous expression of the bond he had built with the city over decades.[1]

A principle presented in the memorial remarks as capturing Levy's outlook reads: "There is no quarrel in the world without a compromise, no dispute without a solution, and no human situation, however difficult, that may be neglected without devoted and faithful treatment."[1] That ethos reflected a career spanning labor representation, municipal service to Lod's Jewish and Arab residents, and national politics.

In August 1996, while in New York on what he described as a mission for the Jewish Pluralism Center, Levy attended an event hosted by the Kassin family.[8] He stated that he paid his personal expenses from his own pocket, while expenses for part of the trip were covered by the MetroWest Federation of Jewish Communities together with Arza, the Zionist arm of the Reform Jewish movement in the United States.[8] A complaint alleging that his stay had been funded by businessman Jacques Kassin was referred to the Knesset Ethics Committee.[8]